John Cook
#PostPunk #IndieMusicSubculture #1980sIndieMusic
Posted 4th August 2024
(Above photo taken by Peter McArthur)
Strawberry Switchblade were a female-led cult post-punk band. I did an 18 month stint with them in the early ‘80s. We played London's Brockwell Park festival 40 years ago (on the 4th August, 1984) as a trio with a drum machine. 40 years later to the day, on the 4th August 2024 (today) I head off from the UK to the Punk Scholars Network Conference, Chicago, to give a talk about it all; see the day 1 programme above, click here for link to my abstract or see the end of this post. Can I get a witness? Yes, my grown up son and daughter are coming along with me.
Here is a poster of the Brockwell Park festival line up on the day. When the time schedule (below) was set we came on after The Fall and before Spear of Destiny.
There was a lot of fun, energy and some aggro at this event. The goal of my new line of research is to feed into the history of post-punk subcultures, i.e. the tribes mentioned in the title (#postpunktribes), which misquotes the first line of Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s anti-war song Two Tribes (this entered the UK Singles Chart at number one on the 10th June 1984, where it stayed for nine consecutive weeks). This is the story of my 1984.
In my research I am treating this as a cold case crime scene from 40 years ago!
– What were the motives of the suspects?
– I was there at the time but had missed many clues
– Inductive reasoning: drawing conclusions by going from the specific to the general
In my exploratory study
- I have triangulated my memories and diary entries, and the accounts from others, with reviews from the time
I had forgotten that I had been on the same bill as The Damned forty years earlier and this discovery a few months ago was quite exciting for me (i.e. the poster above acted as “auto”/memory prompt). The Damned, as many know, are an English punk rock band formed in London in 1976 and they were the first punk band from the UK to release a single, New Rose, which they played at the festival (below). “Is she really going out with him?” muttered singer Dave Vanian, before Captain Sensible and Rat Scabies lurched into a cacophony of wipe-out style rhythms, and then we were off on a massive punk thrash ride. It was written by Brian James, originally on guitar he later became the bass player but then left the band well before this gig.
Photo: Augusto Croce, Brockwell Park festival, 4th August, 1984
In a very different vein, here is a 3 minute Youtube video that takes you back 40 years to 1984. It has me on bass. I will use it to support my presentation in Chicago:
- Music: Deep Water bootleg made by Aadam Jacobs of Strawberry Switchblade, performed Brockwell Park, Greater London Council ‘Save the GLC’ festival 4th August, 1984.
- Images: montage of performance and audience from that day, all photos given to John Cook by Strawberry Switchblade unless stated otherwise (i.e. additional photos by Gavin Watson and Dave Walking).
If video doesn't load, refresh the page
Initial issues raised by my work:
- Two audience members, plus fellow performer Rose (quoted in the title of my paper) seem to agree with me. In a recent Facebook interaction with me Rose said: “I got hit with one of those bottles but was relieved it hit my hip and not my guitar!”
- However, a review of the day in The Archive thought fans of The Damned were also throwing cans
- Who were the racist chanters for Benjamin Zephaniah’s slot? I am not certain, but more work is needed. (See NME review of the event below.)
- Were Spear of Destiny using Nazi occult overtones? I think not, but more work is needed
Williams, Susan and Brown, James (1984), ‘Kenstock’. NME, 18th August, 1984, downloaded from https://standupandspit.wordpress.com/2014/10/01/glc-festival-brockwell-park-brixton-1984/. Accessed 26 May 2024.
Link to a short abstract for my presentation is below:
Cook, J. (2024). When post-punk tribes go to war: “I got hit with one of those bottles but was relieved it hit my hip and not my guitar!”, Conference: Punk Scholars Network USA/Canada, at: DePaul University (Lincoln Park Campus), Chicago, August 2024. A final draft (2 pages) can be downloaded from: https://tinyurl.com/4vphw3vk
This post summarises Part 1 of “When post-punk tribes go to war”, my evolving photo-stories/autoethnography series. A larger work is in the pipe-line (watch this space).
If you were there on the day, or have any thoughts about similar problems and/or synergies between post-punk tribes in the early 80s, please email me at johnnigelcook@gmail.com or leave a comment below. Please indicate if you DO NOT want your comments used in my research publications; or if you are happy to be quoted but want to remain anonymous; otherwise I will assume I can quote you.
John Cook - brief '80 indie musical bio:
One of John’s minor claims to fame is that of having been the electric bass player in the post-punk band Angels One 5 (1980-1982) with Jimmy Cauty, who later formed the KLF and who infamously burnt £1 million on the Isle of Jura! Angels One 5 were selected by John Peel, a DJ on UK Radio 1, as being one of his best sessions of 1981. Following this John did a stint with Strawberry Switchblade (1983-4), a post-punk cult band.
Links to my research bio and some publications:
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/John-Cook-22 (public)
Orchid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1846-9451 (public)